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Testing Splitboards and Snowboards, Backcountry and Outside Magazines

Friends have asked why I wasn’t able to play outside as much the first half of this summer. For someone who preaches “fun outdoors” on a daily basis, I may have lately seemed like quite the hypocrite. But my time spent indoors (or on the deck, milking the sun with laptop in hand lap) was not for waste, I assure you. Fun experienced during outdoor adventures occasionally requires more tedious documentation than quick trip reports or brief reflections, and this year, such is my justification.

When Backcountry Magazine and Outside Magazine offer to send you to Colorado for a week to vigorously test next year’s splitboards (for out-of-bounds riding) and snowboards (for in-bounds riding), you drop everything and make it happen.

Then, when they ask for detailed feedback on products tested, you spend countless hours per week on the computer, outside your 40-hr/wk desk job, transcribing testers’ reviews and submitting numerous rounds of edits to make sure they receive the best possible beta on each. After all, real people will depend on these meticulously crafted reviews to make sound financial decisions, which will affect the amount of fun they have for the next who-knows-how-long until it’s time for another new board.

Finally, when it’s all said and done, the magazines go to print and I can begin telling friends and followers to anticipate some hot new reads hitting newsstands in the coming weeks.

Be on the lookout for Backcountry Magazine‘s 2015 Gear Guide (mid-August), as well as Outside Magazine‘s 2015 Buyer’s Guide (mid-September). Within them you’ll find information on the latest innovations in the snowboarding world, written by yours truly. You’ll also see cool photos of myself and my test team, taken by friend and photo-phenom Matt Berglund, and you’ll get a taste of the company I keep in the alpine.

Until then, these three articles I wrote for Backcountry Magazine’s blog (written during Test Week, March 2014) should hopefully entice you to keep a watchful eye in the checkout aisle: